Those 40+ workers won't have a snowball's chance in hell in the current market. Roughly what anyone that doesn't currently have a job, I might add.
Not only that, but I suspect that many people with CS degrees - the technical rough equivilent of an Engineering degree or such - are getting a mere fraction of what other people in technically inclined career paths are getting. The situation doesn't look like it's going to improve, either - at least not within the decade, and probably longer.
I see tech workers having several options from which to chose from. The available options are probably not anything that will happen without a fairly large pull on the government from the private citizens of the US: civil liberties have been pretty low on the totem pole of things to do for the government of late.
The first thing that could be done would probably be to form a union. Many people in the tech industry protest this it seems, though, because they might see 'union' being attributed to 'lower' work, such as manual labor. However, I do not see this as meaning that it shouldn't be done, or that it would be bad for tech workers if it were done. It would provide for wage and sallary standardization for specific tasks and job requirements. Granted, the people with lucrative 200k$/year jobs would probably lose out.
Another option - and probably the best - is to get a government licsensure board set up, such as what conventional engineers have. This would act positively on several fronts. First, it would change being a 'tech worker' from being simply that - someone with technical skills that is seen by management to perform menial technical tasks - to a trained and licensed professional.
Then, in turn, commericial software could not be sold without a licensed programmer's 'signature'. (This could work much like the current engineer scenario of a single engineer watching over draftsmen - the real programmers (people that hvae been programming for years, with many languages, etc - programming managers, basically, instead of the clueless IT Managers we have now) look over, debug, and LART the 'coders'. Granted, there'd probably be a higher ratio of programmers/coders than there is of engineers/draftsman, simply because it takes a lot more man hours to review code than it does to look over a blueprint.
Additionally, this would do several things for the quality of code. It would increase, one, because there would at least be a minimal level of competence on a given project (as shown by the licensure test taken by the programmer).
Second, an programmer putting his stamp of approval on a project is much more likely to pay attention to the overall quality of the product, since his license is on the line. There will have to be some more thought done on how to determine whether or not a programmer is responsible for a problem with his software, of course, but I think it can be safely said that large vulnerabilities and inherrently insecure software design would result in such a license revocation. It would, of course, be determined by the governmental licensure board.
Thirdly, this would be a positive long-term thing because all the Indian and Asian imigrants that are currently working here without their blue cards, and many with, would not be able to work in the capacity of programmer. Hopefully 'coders' would have to be licensed too, a requirement being that they be a civizen.
Similar rules can be drawn up for system administration, although I'll argue that the infastructure is already largely there. sysadmins follow previously defined guidelines, for the most part, and work within a boundry. They have things like Cisco's intensive certification program which is largely respected in its higher manifestations. Etc.
The fact of the matter is, the software industry has been going through an 'industrial revolution' of sorts, similar to what occured about 100 years ago. Ideas have been formulated, mistakes have been made, and now we're still going over step 1 and 2 wi
In case you read this and think, "I wnat to try this, it sounds good!" let me warn you that this will... make an incredibly delicious and juicy stake. Yes, that's right. A nice -juicy- stake.
I don't know about anyone else, but for the most part (with the exception of 3ivX) I didn't notice enough image degrigation to matter. Especially at 24fps.
Don't believe me? Try this: scroll through the screenshots (at about the rate of 1 image going from the bottom of the screen to the top per second - 1fps) and tell me if you can pick out the glitches in most of these codecs.
What's more, if anyone was walked into several rooms in sequence, all playing the same movie, but one being DVD, one being DivX3, one being WMV9, etc. I suspect nobody would be able to distinguish one from the other, provided they're encoded at one of the higher quality settings - even if they're intimately familiar with the film.
This is a load of garbage. DVD is a broken codec to begin with.
I forgot MechWarrior II: 31st Century Combat. I played hours and hours of that game, even though my system wasn't able to push it beyond about 3fps. It was just so damned immersive. The music was fantastic, the control for the 'mechs felt realistic, and the alerts letting you know you were damaged, etc. were much more realistic and submersive than "3% health".
Not only that, but the intro cutscene is cinematically superior to many action films out there. I'm just waiting for a Mechwarrior movie based off of that timeline.
Now if only I could afford an Xbox and that new game w/ the badass controller. I'd hope they'd release a second game for the controller, all considering.
It seems most people are listing games from their childhood. Well, here goes.:)
First off the list was probably Zelda (the first one for the NES). That game is still fun to play, even after all these years. The new Zelda games don't compare, IMO, and I've seen kids with new Nintendo systems jump at the opportunity to play the original zelda over their new, putrid 3D zelda.
After that would probably be Descent. It's gameplay was far superior to any FPS up until that time, if you had the brains and patience to learn how to effectively control the ship in the fully-3D world. It's definately an under-appreciated title - nobody ever mentions it. All this tak about 2.5D in doom, etc. They don't know what they missed. Hours upon hours were wasted playing intense multiplayer deathmatch in a map called Jolly Green Giant (and others).
After that, I'd say I entered my "adult" phase. There weren't too many games that wree really good enough to impact me. I played a large part of Deus Ex, but never got into it, until replaying it just this last year and being cmopletely inveloped in it (due to my increased appreciation for good storytelling). I played Baldur's Gate like a mofo, and really got into that. It was at times intense. I'd say that Max Payne, however, impacted me more than any other game in my more recent memory. It set a precident for any and all future games I will play, just like The Matrix did for action films.
I couldn't tell you, I didn't start using a linux wm until I saw the prettyness of Enlightenment. I only vaguely recall the earlier wm's. (I personally find E quite friendly, but that's me.)
There are also others that claim that it could have been a sneaker bomb, since this was a while prior to the guy getting caught trying to light his shoe.
How do you explain why the Clinton administration covered up the fact that the plane that was downed in NY during his administration was shot by a rocket-launched missile? There is video evidence showing such a missle coming at the plane from a boat on the river. And the government did nothing - they made the situation 'go away'. The plane was ripped appart, the engines not even near the rest of hte plane. The only way that could have happened is if it were shot. "Air turbulence", as was officially claimed, doesn't hold water.
If they'd cover up such an instance, and then not heighten security to prevent 9-11, what makes you think that someone, somewhere, in the US government, didn't know about the impending doom to the WTC and did nothing? They knew about bin laden, and yet they let him live. The list goes on and on.
This is a serious inquisition, not a troll or such. Neither wsa my previous statement.
If some guy could think this up on his spare time, what makes you think that a dozen of highly-educated graduates of America's and Europe's top schools wouldn't be able to figure something like this out on their own as well? Because that's what a large number of these terrorists are.
That is, if there even -are- terrorists. What's to say it's not something fabricated by the government? They -did- know about 9-11.
"unoriginal" was probably a bad term for him, and he probably shouldn't have been lumped in with Britney Spears and Creed. He is, however, sensationalist and a media whore. He's got a freaking doll made in his likeness, for crying out loud.
Now, I don't like rap, but he makes a mockery of even that. A freaking doll?
First off, we do -not- buy CDs from record labels that align themselves with the RIAA. This is a no-brainer.
Second off, we do -not- download music by bands that are the larger whores of the industry - Britney Spears, Creed, Eminem, etc. (My question to you is, why do you want to? They suck and are horribly unoriginal).
Third, any music that we download that is under the mandle of the RIAA, we pay for - by mailing, paypaling or handing the musicians we like money for the downloads. You will likely get a large degree of personal grattitude from someone when you hand them 15$ and say, "I downloaded your albums online, so I wanted to pay for them, because they were good." $10, even, would speak more than buying their stuff. You paid for it because you liked it.
<b><i>More importandly still</i></b>, however, is that we must support our <a href="http://www.wipeyoureyes.com</a>local bands, or our local 'scene'. You can do this by going to shows, buying their CDs, t-shirts and other merchantdise, and just giving them a good ol' pat on the back. (Might not want to try this with some guys, they'll snap your neck if ya do... crazy hardcore drummers) If we don't do this, then all traces of good music will soon disappear, due to discouraged musicians trying to feed themselves, and there being a decreasing pool of 'indie' artists from which the larger msuic industry can choose their whores from.
Ok, I must have drifted into a parallel universe last night while sleeping. I wasn't fatigued this morning like I normally am, my eyes are acting wonky, and monopolistic federalist companies (as I know them) are lobbying for openness and freedom.
Anyone have this happen to them before? Any idea how I can get back?
Both the Ionic Breeze and HEPA filters have been mentioned. As someone with alergies that has used both, I can tell you right now that there's a huge difference between the two. I'm not sure what the Ionic Breeze goes for, but for a $200 HEPA filter house solution, you fix the air in your entire house - and much better than the IB can in a single room.
EXACTLY. Having been forced into telemarketing for a short period of time myself (due to financial reasons) I can attest that very few people that are able to continue telemarketing work full time have no souls. I didn't last 40 hours, and the only reason I lasted that long was because i had my fiancee providing emotional support, and I couldn't afford to quit.
In my mind, telemarketing is about as self-damaging as prostitution. I'd probably put it up there on the moral scale, too. Its time we see religoius groups going into telemarketing offices and trying to save their souls.
Actually, I think that a prostiute is lest morally detestable than a telemarketer - at least prostitutes can feasably enjoy their job, and it pays better.
This is why I buy older vehicles. I'm not talking about a 1990 Ford Taurus, I'm talking about things like older BMWs, Volvos, Mustangs, and the likes which hvae been taken care of for the most part. Sure, I'll probably have to start replacing and fixing things "right away", as opposed to the 6 months - 1 year that is generally the case for new vehicles, but I'm still paying drastically less. In the case of a Volvo or BMW, maintainance work will likely be even less frequent.
So let me get this straight. An American company can't exclusively allow Americans or those that are friendly to America to use their site? It's morally wrong to disallow countries that are politically and philosophically opposed to American ideals from sending workers to our country and take our money? How dare they!
Slashdot Mirror
Granted, it's quite early in the morning, but this guy's site isn't even being (seemingly) phased by the slashdot effect.
Those 40+ workers won't have a snowball's chance in hell in the current market. Roughly what anyone that doesn't currently have a job, I might add.
Not only that, but I suspect that many people with CS degrees - the technical rough equivilent of an Engineering degree or such - are getting a mere fraction of what other people in technically inclined career paths are getting. The situation doesn't look like it's going to improve, either - at least not within the decade, and probably longer.
I see tech workers having several options from which to chose from. The available options are probably not anything that will happen without a fairly large pull on the government from the private citizens of the US: civil liberties have been pretty low on the totem pole of things to do for the government of late.
The first thing that could be done would probably be to form a union. Many people in the tech industry protest this it seems, though, because they might see 'union' being attributed to 'lower' work, such as manual labor. However, I do not see this as meaning that it shouldn't be done, or that it would be bad for tech workers if it were done. It would provide for wage and sallary standardization for specific tasks and job requirements. Granted, the people with lucrative 200k$/year jobs would probably lose out.
Another option - and probably the best - is to get a government licsensure board set up, such as what conventional engineers have. This would act positively on several fronts. First, it would change being a 'tech worker' from being simply that - someone with technical skills that is seen by management to perform menial technical tasks - to a trained and licensed professional.
Then, in turn, commericial software could not be sold without a licensed programmer's 'signature'. (This could work much like the current engineer scenario of a single engineer watching over draftsmen - the real programmers (people that hvae been programming for years, with many languages, etc - programming managers, basically, instead of the clueless IT Managers we have now) look over, debug, and LART the 'coders'. Granted, there'd probably be a higher ratio of programmers/coders than there is of engineers/draftsman, simply because it takes a lot more man hours to review code than it does to look over a blueprint.
Additionally, this would do several things for the quality of code. It would increase, one, because there would at least be a minimal level of competence on a given project (as shown by the licensure test taken by the programmer).
Second, an programmer putting his stamp of approval on a project is much more likely to pay attention to the overall quality of the product, since his license is on the line. There will have to be some more thought done on how to determine whether or not a programmer is responsible for a problem with his software, of course, but I think it can be safely said that large vulnerabilities and inherrently insecure software design would result in such a license revocation. It would, of course, be determined by the governmental licensure board.
Thirdly, this would be a positive long-term thing because all the Indian and Asian imigrants that are currently working here without their blue cards, and many with, would not be able to work in the capacity of programmer. Hopefully 'coders' would have to be licensed too, a requirement being that they be a civizen.
Similar rules can be drawn up for system administration, although I'll argue that the infastructure is already largely there. sysadmins follow previously defined guidelines, for the most part, and work within a boundry. They have things like Cisco's intensive certification program which is largely respected in its higher manifestations. Etc.
The fact of the matter is, the software industry has been going through an 'industrial revolution' of sorts, similar to what occured about 100 years ago. Ideas have been formulated, mistakes have been made, and now we're still going over step 1 and 2 wi
Interesting. Is your friend particularly attractive or something, or were the girls particularly ugly? Maybe you could ask him to write up a HOWTO?
Yeah. Please note the sarcasm. This person's a troll, and I don't doubt there'll be several ruined pieces of meat as a result.
I see a new meaning for "all-night LAN party marathon"
I was more concerned with getting to the site before it was slashdotted than comprehending the french, thanks. And no, I can't read french.
In case you read this and think, "I wnat to try this, it sounds good!" let me warn you that this will... make an incredibly delicious and juicy stake. Yes, that's right. A nice -juicy- stake.
I don't know about anyone else, but for the most part (with the exception of 3ivX) I didn't notice enough image degrigation to matter. Especially at 24fps.
Don't believe me? Try this: scroll through the screenshots (at about the rate of 1 image going from the bottom of the screen to the top per second - 1fps) and tell me if you can pick out the glitches in most of these codecs.
What's more, if anyone was walked into several rooms in sequence, all playing the same movie, but one being DVD, one being DivX3, one being WMV9, etc. I suspect nobody would be able to distinguish one from the other, provided they're encoded at one of the higher quality settings - even if they're intimately familiar with the film.
This is a load of garbage. DVD is a broken codec to begin with.
Holy cow!
I forgot MechWarrior II: 31st Century Combat. I played hours and hours of that game, even though my system wasn't able to push it beyond about 3fps. It was just so damned immersive. The music was fantastic, the control for the 'mechs felt realistic, and the alerts letting you know you were damaged, etc. were much more realistic and submersive than "3% health".
Not only that, but the intro cutscene is cinematically superior to many action films out there. I'm just waiting for a Mechwarrior movie based off of that timeline.
Now if only I could afford an Xbox and that new game w/ the badass controller. I'd hope they'd release a second game for the controller, all considering.
It seems most people are listing games from their childhood. Well, here goes. :)
First off the list was probably Zelda (the first one for the NES). That game is still fun to play, even after all these years. The new Zelda games don't compare, IMO, and I've seen kids with new Nintendo systems jump at the opportunity to play the original zelda over their new, putrid 3D zelda.
After that would probably be Descent. It's gameplay was far superior to any FPS up until that time, if you had the brains and patience to learn how to effectively control the ship in the fully-3D world. It's definately an under-appreciated title - nobody ever mentions it. All this tak about 2.5D in doom, etc. They don't know what they missed. Hours upon hours were wasted playing intense multiplayer deathmatch in a map called Jolly Green Giant (and others).
After that, I'd say I entered my "adult" phase. There weren't too many games that wree really good enough to impact me. I played a large part of Deus Ex, but never got into it, until replaying it just this last year and being cmopletely inveloped in it (due to my increased appreciation for good storytelling). I played Baldur's Gate like a mofo, and really got into that. It was at times intense. I'd say that Max Payne, however, impacted me more than any other game in my more recent memory. It set a precident for any and all future games I will play, just like The Matrix did for action films.
I couldn't tell you, I didn't start using a linux wm until I saw the prettyness of Enlightenment. I only vaguely recall the earlier wm's. (I personally find E quite friendly, but that's me.)
There are also others that claim that it could have been a sneaker bomb, since this was a while prior to the guy getting caught trying to light his shoe.
Last I recall reading, Torvalds uses fvwm or fvwm95, or the like. Granted, that was back in the rh5.2 days. I also recall something about afterstep.
How do you explain why the Clinton administration covered up the fact that the plane that was downed in NY during his administration was shot by a rocket-launched missile? There is video evidence showing such a missle coming at the plane from a boat on the river. And the government did nothing - they made the situation 'go away'. The plane was ripped appart, the engines not even near the rest of hte plane. The only way that could have happened is if it were shot. "Air turbulence", as was officially claimed, doesn't hold water.
If they'd cover up such an instance, and then not heighten security to prevent 9-11, what makes you think that someone, somewhere, in the US government, didn't know about the impending doom to the WTC and did nothing? They knew about bin laden, and yet they let him live. The list goes on and on.
This is a serious inquisition, not a troll or such. Neither wsa my previous statement.
If some guy could think this up on his spare time, what makes you think that a dozen of highly-educated graduates of America's and Europe's top schools wouldn't be able to figure something like this out on their own as well? Because that's what a large number of these terrorists are.
That is, if there even -are- terrorists. What's to say it's not something fabricated by the government? They -did- know about 9-11.
"unoriginal" was probably a bad term for him, and he probably shouldn't have been lumped in with Britney Spears and Creed. He is, however, sensationalist and a media whore. He's got a freaking doll made in his likeness, for crying out loud.
Now, I don't like rap, but he makes a mockery of even that. A freaking doll?
First off, we do -not- buy CDs from record labels that align themselves with the RIAA. This is a no-brainer.
Second off, we do -not- download music by bands that are the larger whores of the industry - Britney Spears, Creed, Eminem, etc. (My question to you is, why do you want to? They suck and are horribly unoriginal).
Third, any music that we download that is under the mandle of the RIAA, we pay for - by mailing, paypaling or handing the musicians we like money for the downloads. You will likely get a large degree of personal grattitude from someone when you hand them 15$ and say, "I downloaded your albums online, so I wanted to pay for them, because they were good." $10, even, would speak more than buying their stuff. You paid for it because you liked it.
<b><i>More importandly still</i></b>, however, is that we must support our <a href="http://www.wipeyoureyes.com</a>local bands, or our local 'scene'. You can do this by going to shows, buying their CDs, t-shirts and other merchantdise, and just giving them a good ol' pat on the back. (Might not want to try this with some guys, they'll snap your neck if ya do... crazy hardcore drummers) If we don't do this, then all traces of good music will soon disappear, due to discouraged musicians trying to feed themselves, and there being a decreasing pool of 'indie' artists from which the larger msuic industry can choose their whores from.
Wow, you so completely misunderstood everything I said, and ran full speed in the other direction.
Then maybe the analogy of raping them and taking their money would be better?
*checks the date*
*sees that it's not April 1st*
Ok, I must have drifted into a parallel universe last night while sleeping. I wasn't fatigued this morning like I normally am, my eyes are acting wonky, and monopolistic federalist companies (as I know them) are lobbying for openness and freedom.
Anyone have this happen to them before? Any idea how I can get back?
Both the Ionic Breeze and HEPA filters have been mentioned. As someone with alergies that has used both, I can tell you right now that there's a huge difference between the two. I'm not sure what the Ionic Breeze goes for, but for a $200 HEPA filter house solution, you fix the air in your entire house - and much better than the IB can in a single room.
EXACTLY. Having been forced into telemarketing for a short period of time myself (due to financial reasons) I can attest that very few people that are able to continue telemarketing work full time have no souls. I didn't last 40 hours, and the only reason I lasted that long was because i had my fiancee providing emotional support, and I couldn't afford to quit.
In my mind, telemarketing is about as self-damaging as prostitution. I'd probably put it up there on the moral scale, too. Its time we see religoius groups going into telemarketing offices and trying to save their souls.
Actually, I think that a prostiute is lest morally detestable than a telemarketer - at least prostitutes can feasably enjoy their job, and it pays better.
This is why I buy older vehicles. I'm not talking about a 1990 Ford Taurus, I'm talking about things like older BMWs, Volvos, Mustangs, and the likes which hvae been taken care of for the most part. Sure, I'll probably have to start replacing and fixing things "right away", as opposed to the 6 months - 1 year that is generally the case for new vehicles, but I'm still paying drastically less. In the case of a Volvo or BMW, maintainance work will likely be even less frequent.
... for me to walk around with my own personal EMP backpack - maybe something similar to what the Ghostbusters use?
But then, they'd be able to find me by looking at the ever-moving deadspot on their network.
So let me get this straight. An American company can't exclusively allow Americans or those that are friendly to America to use their site? It's morally wrong to disallow countries that are politically and philosophically opposed to American ideals from sending workers to our country and take our money? How dare they!
There's much love for monster.com comin' from me.